Children pulled into the religious terrorism of Ireland

The images of girls running with their parents and police escorting them down a street in Northern Ireland is one that I will not soon forget.

On Sept. 5, girls who were trying to go to school had a bomb thrown at them. A Protestant protester threw the bomb. It was thrown because the girls were Paul Williams Catholic. They were trying to staff writer reach the Holy Cross Girls' Primary School. The girls were between the ages of 4 and 11. Two policemen escorting them were injured from the blast.

Imagine that you were 4 years old walking with your parents to school with a police escort and you had a bomb thrown at you. I would be completely scared and in shock. The last time I can remember police having to escort anyone to school was when I was in history class and my class was learning about schools in the southern part of the United States being desegregated. African Americans had to walk through protests at schools with police protection. Now the same thing is happening in another country. Considering that I am an Irish Catholic, it is making me take my religion and where I come from seriously.

My grandfather's family on my mother's side was from Northern Ireland, and they were Catholic. I have some distant cousins who still live there. To think that they might have to die solely based on the fact that they are Catholic should be scary for anyone who is Catholic. Protestants are also being killed and having similar situations occur to them in The Republic of Ireland. I never really took the time to look at the rest of the world outside of the United States, but people are dying all around the world because of who they are and where they come from. Everyone should have some kind of fear and take things like religion and heritage more seriously.